Southern Campaigns American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters

Pension Application of Joseph Blackwell S37781 VA Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris. Revised 19 May 2015.

The affidavit of Joseph Blackwell of the County of Fauquier and State of Virginia. This affiant makes oath that in the year seventeen hundred and seventy five he entered into the service of the United States of Virginia as a volunteer in a company commanded by Capt William Blackwell of the County of Fauquier and State of Virginia that on the first of January seventeen hundred seventy six he left this company and with the Commission of a cadet he joined a company commanded by Capt. John Ashby of the third Virginia Regiment on continental establishment and served in this company until nearly the end of the year when he received the commission of a Lieutenant and belonged to a company commanded by Capt. Thomas Blackwell [pension application S35193] of the tenth Virginia Regiment on continental establishment commanded by Col Edward Stevens of Culpeper County and State of Virginia, that this regiment afterwards became [one or two illegible words] the appelation of the sixth Virginia Regiment [i.e. was renumbered the Sixth Virginia Regiment, at White Plains NY, 14 Sep 1778], that he entered as an Officer with the commission of a Lieutenant under Capt. Cluff Chilton [sic: Clough Shelton] of Amherst County and State of Virginia in this Regiment commanded by Col John Green of Culpeper County and State of Virginia until he received the commission of a Captain [22 Mar 1779] in the same Regiment to which he was attached and with which he remained until the end of the revolutionary war with Great Britain when the army of the United States was discharged, that the affiant participated in some of the most arduous conflicts with Great Britain at Harlem Hights [sic: Harlem Heights, 16 Sep 1776], the White Plains [28 Oct 1776], Brandywine [11 Sep 1777], German Town [Germantown, 4 Oct 1777], Monmouth [28 Jun 1778] and in the [spring 1780 until surrendered 12 May] that he feels a satisfaction I having discharged his duties as a soldier and an officer with fidelity and regrets that he is compelled by reason of his reduced and necessitous circumstances to petition assistance from his country for his support.

John Deane [pension application W6998] of Fauquier County and State of Virginia this 24th March 1818 appeared in open Court and made oath that he is now in his seventieth year, that he served two years as a soldier in the continental establishment, that he served as a soldier on & in York Island [Manhattan] under Capt. John Chilton, who was killed in the , that this affiant was also in the , and that while he belonged to the army, Joseph Blackwell of Fauquier County and State of Virginia was a commissioned officer on the continental establishment John Deane

Joseph Smith of Fauquier County this 24th March 1818 appeared in open Court and made oath that he has always understood from his neighbors that Col. Joseph Blackwell of the County of Fauquier and State of Virginia who now petitions for a pension from the united states had served and acted as a soldier and an officer from the beginning until the end of the revolutionary war, that he is now old, has a large family which he is unable to support by his corporal exertions and that his circumstances are so narrow and necessitous as to require the aid of his country for a support. [Joseph D. Smith]

[Col. Thornton Buckner, Capt William Edmonds (age 53), and Col. John Kemper made similar statements.] At a Court held for Fauquier County the 24th day of July 1820 District of Virginia Fauquier County to wit on this 24th day of July 1820 personally appeared in open Court being a Court of Record made so by the express provision of Law for the County of Fauquier Joseph Blackwell aged sixty three years in August next resident in the County of Fauquier in the State aforesaid who being duly sworn according to Law doth on his oath declare that he served in the revolutionary war as follows I enlisted in the 3rd Virginia Regiment on Continental Establishment Commanded by Colo. James Mercer [sic: ] in the Company commanded by Capt. John Ashly as a Cadet – afterwards to Wit about the beginning of the year 1777 I was appointed a Lieutenant in the 10th Regiment on Continental establishment Commanded by Col. Edward Stevens in which Regiment I continued until the Virginia Regiments were reduced when the 10th became the sixth and was commanded by Colo. John Green. I was appointed a Captain in the Sixth Regiment in which I continued until the end of the War I was in the following battles Viz Harlem Hight, & White plains in the state of New York Brandy Wine & Germantown in the State of pennsylvania Monmouth in the State of New Jersey and the Siege of Charlestown in the State of South Carolina (where I was taken prisioner) besides many little skirmishes in different places and that I made my original Declaration in the County Court of Fauquier being a Court of Record on the day of [blank] and that the number of my pension certificate is (27) and I do solemnly swear that I was a resident Citizen of the United States on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift sale or in any manner disposed of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself within the provisions of an act of Congress entitled “an act to provide for certain person engaged in the land and naval service of the United States in the Revolutionary War” passed on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not nor has any person in trust for me any property or securities contracts or debts due to me nor have I any income other than what is contained in the Schedule hereto annexed and by me subscribed to Wit a claim against Thomas Chilton which is unliquidated and which I gave up some months since when I took the oath of an insolvent Debtor it is uncertain whether the aforesaid claim will yield enough to pay the debt under which I swore out I have no property real personal or mixed Jos. Blackwell I am by occupation a farmer but in consequence of being Crippled in my right hand and from a weakness in my knees am unable to pursue it I live upon a piece of rented land very poor at the rent of £20 per annum Mrs. Brent my Mother in Law lives with me and makes me a present of the use of two negroes or I could do nothing on the land – the proceeds of which affords nothing like a support for my Family my own family consists of my wife named Mary W who is in very delicate health – Sarah my eldest Daughter about fifteen years of age – Mary aged about nine years – Christopher aged about seven years and much afflicted and Joseph aged about five years, or thereabouts, and that my Family so far from aiding in my support are a charge upon me. Sworn to and declared in open Court this 24th day of July 1820.

[The following are from bounty-land records in the Library of Virginia.]

This to certify that Capt. J Blackwell of the Virginia entered the service in Febuary 1776 and continued in actual service till the 1st of Jan’y 1778 & at the seting of the Board of Officers at Winchester at which time he became supenumary [sic: supernumerary] Capt. [Index card attributes the certificate to Col. John Green.]

I do hereby Certify that I was well acquainted with capt. Joseph Blackwell of the late 6th Virginia Regt. on continental establishment from the first of his entering into the services of the united states & that his service commenced in the said Reg’t. previous to the first day of November 1775 and continued in the service of the United Sates to the end of the war, and I do well no that the said Joseph Blackwell was never broak [broken] or superseded in the services of said Capt. Given under my hand this 31th July 1806 [signature illegible] A Military Warrant for 4,000 issued to Joseph Blackwell as Captain on Continental establishment which is the only Warr’t. that appears to have issued in the name of s’d. Joseph Blackwell aud[itor’s] Off. 28 June 1806 Edw’d. C Davis clk Wm. Price Reg’r/ Aug’t. 9 1806

[?]th June 1806 I do hereby certify that Joseph Blackwell first entered in my company in the services of the United States in the third Virginia Reg’t on continentialle establishment, & that his service in the said Virginia Reg’t. commenced about the month of June or July 1775 and continued somtime in my company & then was promoted in the said Continale army as an officer and serv’d to [illegible] I do further that he was never broke or suspended the servies has been well acquainted With s’d Blackwell from the first of his entering the s’d Servis untill this day John Ashby late Witness [illegible signature] Capt 3 Virginia Regt

I do hearby Certify that Joseph Blackwell entered into the service of the United States the first day of February 1776 on the continental establishment and that he served to the end of the war as Capt in the sixth Virginia continental Regt. and continued in the service of the United States untill the end of the war and do further certify that he was never broak or suspended the services of said Capt but well known to me the whole of the war aforesaid Given under my hand this 25th June 1806 [Thomas Blackwell] Late Capt 10th Virg’a. Reg’t

NOTES: On 7 Jan 1824 Eppes Hunton, administrator of Joseph Blackwell, stated that Blackwell had died in the previous September, and that some unauthorized person had taken the pension certificate. With pension application W1191 filed by Ann Blackwell, widow of a different Joseph Blackwell is the following statement dated 4 Dec 1843 by Judith Blackwell Keith, sister of that Joseph Blackwell: “There was another Joseph Blackwell of this county [Fauquier] a cousin of ours who entered the Army as an ensign as I now think, and it was some months after my brothers had marched to the north. He was spoken of as deserving & brave in the army, he rose in rank in the army but I do not now remember what was his final grade in the War, after Peace he got to be a colonel &, in that, his army rank was forgotten. He was captured at the Siege of Charleston South Carolina. He died in this County where he was born and raised about twenty years ago very poor, he was living solely on a pension he obtained for his Revolutionary services as I understood.” Another certificate in that file states that this Joseph Blackwell married a “Miss Gibson.”